


let me give you my life

by Murf1307



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: First Time, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, POV Character of Color, POV Third Person, Reunion Sex, Scars, Vietnam War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 08:43:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6847570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex and Darwin, reunited after Vietnam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let me give you my life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mothicalcreatures (laelreenia)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laelreenia/gifts).



“You’re alive,” Alex whispered.“Fuck, Darwin, you’re — you’re _alive_.”

Armando nodded, reached out and pressed his hand to Alex’s chest.“Yeah.And — so’re you.”He was just as bewildered, just as confused.“They said you’d died out there.”

“They lied.”Alex covered Armando’s hand with his own and squeezed.“They tried to kill me, but, y’know.Looks like they’ll have to try harder next time.”

“Whaddya mean?” Armando’s shaking his head, smilinguneasily.“Who tried to kill you?”

“The government, I guess.Or whoever they were paying to cut up mutants, figure out what makes us _tick_.”Alex almost spat it.“Ask Raven.She knows it better than I do.”

Armando tugged him closer, wrapped an arm around him tightly.“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault, y’know.”

“I wasn’t there to help,” Armando murmured.“Which I would’ve been, if I could.”

Alex nodded, letting out a shuddering breath.“Yeah.I know.”

That was where the conversation ended.

* * *

It’s a desperate scramble up the stairs of the motel, a more desperate shuffle to the door, Alex’s hands shaking around the key and Armando’s mouth hot against his ear. 

Eleven years and it was always going to come down to this, to flesh in the dark saying more than words ever could.

The only words that ever mattered were their names, what they called each other, after all.Everything else was blood and dust and smoke.

The door opened, after some striving, and Armando pulled Alex inside after him, the door shutting behind them, closing them in the dark.Armando didn’t care, he could see well enough, and Alex didn’t seem to, too wrapped up in getting Armando’s tongue in his mouth to say anything at all.

Alex was beautiful like this, cracked open and aching for it, and Armando had a feeling he’d never see something quite like this again, and that, more than anything, was what let his eyes cut through the pitch-dark of the motel room at night.

Adapt to survive, sure, but more than that, adapt to _thrive._

Origin of Species, baby.

* * *

Armando wrapped his arms around Alex in the aftermath, breathing against his neck this time, over a bruise left for the purpose of proving that this happened, that it was real.

“Still can’t believe you’re back,” Alex breathed, cracked voice almost croaking.

“Didja really think I’d leave you?’ Armando asked.  “Didja really think I _could_?”

“Didn’t think you _couldn’t_ ,” he pointed out in return, one hand on the small of Armando’s back.“Didn’t wanna hope.’s the hope that kills ya.”

Armando kissed him, just over the bruise.  “Well, here I am.”

“Yeah.  I know.”

* * *

In the morning, light streamed in the window, illuminating two bodies curled around each other after much too long apart.

Armando was awake; he always woke with the sun, these days.  Alex slept like the dead for maybe the first time in years — the irony of safety.  And Armando, with the afforded time, contemplated their nakedness.

He, unlike Eve, found nothing shameful in it.

But he did find something that troubled him: big, layered burn scars across Alex’s back and shoulders, a desaturated red in the pale morning light.  They looked almost absurd against the pale of his skin, and the dark flawlessness of Armando’s.

He didn’t know where Alex had gotten these scars, but, well, he just touched them, gently, and let the matter lie. 

They were here.  They were here, together, against all odds, or maybe because fate was built for this.

Armando didn’t know.  He didn’t need to.

All he needed was the flesh under his hands and the warm, steady thud of a heartbeat.

And together, he and Alex had that in spades.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Alex's scars are from napalm burns. Expect the napalm scars to figure in future fics set post-'Nam for Alex, they're a concept that me and mothicalcreatures came up with for an RP we're doing, and I just. Needed to write the thing.


End file.
